Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I live in Bothell, WA in state legislative District 1, so here's how I recommend my votes.

If you're liberal, you might consider voting the OPPOSITE of me, except for Superintendent of Public Instruction, where both Democrats and Republicans (and "corporate" types of both stripes want to keep) want to dump Terry Bergeson who has failed miserably by sticking with WASL and fuzzy math, and going for Dorn.

YES Initiative 985: Transportation. This is the Eyeman initiative this year, I don't neccesarily agree everything in it is a perfect idea, but it does emphasize that transportation money should be used to ease congestion rather than to get people to stop driving cars.

NO Initiative 1000: They call it death with dignity, but it's doctor assisted suicide. Last time I checked, suicide was still something you're not supposed to do, I don't like the idea of getting a permission slip from your doctor to kill yourself.

NO Initiative 1029: Certification for long-term care workers. I wasn't aware there was a crisis in underqualified care workers, or sudden need for 75 hours of training. Not surprisingly, supported by the people already in the field that it would end up protecting their jobs and raising barriers to entry. I don't see this a neccesary in exchange for the increase in cost and fees.

President: John McCain / Sarah Palin. Some people think Palin should be at the top of the ticket. Sure she's a little rough, but the main reason people say she's unqualified isn't because of her actual experience, which as a governor is as much or more than Obama who won't be a heartbeat away, but running AS president. They don't like that she's not a professional politician, she's not married to a politician, she shoots animals like the Indians used to, she's pro-life, and pro-christian. McCain may be dull, and you can attack Palin all you want over bridges, clothes, and firing people, but they don't advocate raising taxes on the rich to pay for handouts to people who don't owe taxes, they didn't have to quit a church that preached God d---- America, they never worked with a guy that used to bomb America in his youth, they didn't hire as advisors the same Fannie Mae CEO's that ran the economy into the ground, never bought a house with the help of a convicted criminal, or attended a dinner for an Palestinean apologist professor, and never had to pretend he never had two muslim dads, one of whom enrolled him in school as a muslim and took him to the Mosque to pray. Never mind that Obama doesn't know a thing about botched tanker deals or Littoral Combat ships, or why the Vietnam war was badly run. If you want to voter for hope and change, go with Obama. If you want experience, integrity and character, I'm sticking with McCain.

Runner Up: Bob Barr (L) Dorey Monson has a point that Washington is probably far enough away from McCain getting the points, Bob Barr, who opposed the bailout, would be a good libertarian minimalist government vote. Don't bother with the socialists, you've got one in Obama.

Congress Dist 1: Larry Ishmael.(R) He recognizes Democrats pass environmental laws that raise the cost of energy. Inslee was one of the few like Obama to oppose taking out Saddam Hussein's regime, still wants to "end the war in Iraq" (how??), wrote a book comparing energy to the Apollo program, which is a silly "if we could go to the moon we can do anything". Apollo was a textbook implementation of 1960s technology that didn't have to make economic sense.

Governor: Dino Rossi. (R) Frankly, the anti-Gregoire ads annoy me, but not as much as the anti-rossi ads. Gregoire ads don't make any sense to me to try to convice the far-left that Rossi is really a conservative republican. Rossi on the other hand makes the case Gregoire did a poor job regardless of what party you are in. Rossi wants to end the WASL, which was my idea for SPI back in 2000, now I'm not the only one.

Lieutenant Governor: I like that Marcia McCraw (R) speaks mandarin, french, spanish and Japanese, served on the board of just about everybody, and doesn't like Olympia coming up with expensive programs to fix everything.

Attorney General: Rob McKenna (R), another popular guy, he investigated the oil companies to conclude they're not just a bunch of crooks, the same thesis of my high school study of the energy crisis when government regulation gave us gas lines, not just high prices.

Commisioner Public Lands Doug Sutherland (R) Another republican with broad support and approval, Dan Evans and democrat house speaker likes him.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Randy Dorn. I was the first guy to scream bloody murder over the awful WASL test which claims to set high standards. What I could see putting math problems this MIT guy couldn't solve in a half hour on a alleged 4th grade test, and she just approved math standards that have kindergartners doing multiplication, and a crazy music WASL test that expects all 5th graders to sight sing from sheet music. Now Dorn realizes how badly bungled the WASL is, as well as the ridiculous no-arithmetic mathematics standards Bergeson pushed with the WASL. Dorn is a democrat that was part of the original misguided outcome-based education reform law of 1993, but at least he's willing to kill the worst parts of it. Bergeson has been in too long, and her program revolves around the WASL, even as the original EALR standards and Certificate of Mastery have been abandoned here and in other states as unworkable.

Insurance commissioner: John R. Adams.(R) He's an insurance guy who runs an agency who recognizes that bad regulations that make companies leave the state and doctors leave their practice. Kreidler has been school board member, state rep, state senator and US congress - impressive but what does he know about insurance other than "fair treatment at a fair price" which means making it tough for insurance companies to do business in this state?

State Senator Dennis Richter (R) Rosemary McAuliffe (D) is an arch-supporter of the WASL, though even she recognizes it punishes all kids. Richter is a Boeing electronics engineer who doesn't like the WASL, though I wonder about the monorail.

State Rep District 1, pos 1 and 2: Arthur Hu write-in (live in Bothell, ran for SPI 2000, just missed 2nd place, won primary for Lake WA school board in 2003)There is no republican or any other opponent for either Al O'Brien (12 yrs) or Mark Eriks (2 terms), this is a district where Joshua Freed (R) got nearly 50% of the vote, now he's on the city council, so we have two reps and a senator who all have very liberal voting records. At least O'Brien doesn't like Bergeson's WASL either, but I would provide Republican / Libertarian balance to keep the budget under control and limit government to what it has to do best. Write-ins aren't counted though unless you pay the filing fee. 2 year term so I could run with Freed for these positions. GOP spends a lot for Kirkland ,but not trying hard at all in this district.

Robert Leach - at least he has Slade Gorton (but so does Terry Bergson ugh)

Snohomish Superior Court - George Appel (R) is backed by Koster and Stevens, well respected conservatives, various law enforcement groups. Wilson is backed by the liberal sherriff, democrats and labor council.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Pelosi: Thank you, Mr. President. I, too, applaud Congress for this vote and add that without your vote, this bill might well have failed. Even though this crisis was 100 percent the fault of your administration and it’s insane economic policies. And though I’m sure you’ll agree, you will go down in history as our worst president ever. This one time, you did manage to not screw things up and I wanna acknowledge that.Bush: Thank you, Madame Speaker. I was glad to do it.Frank: Let me add, Mr. President, I was also pleased to see that for the first time during your eight years in office and possibly your entire life, you were able to demonstrate leadership, not to mention simple human decency.Bush: You bet, you bet.Pelosi: Let’s not forget, Mr. President, that it was the Democrats that first sounded the alarm about the risky mortgage loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were encouraging and that your party resisted all our efforts to rein them in.Bush: W-w-w-w-ait. Wasn’t it my administration that warned about the problem six years ago? And it was the Democrats that refused to listen?!Pelosi: What? Who told you that? That’s crazy. It was completely the other way around.Frank: Actually. This time, he’s sort of right.Pelosi: Shhh! Don’t say anything. He doesn’t know. Now, there was another point we wanted to make here and you are welcome to stay.Bush: Thank you. I’d like that.Pelosi: Back there would be better.Bush: No problem.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Here's a good post I found about the Sing for Change video. I just did a search and omigod, there are dozens of "tributes" interspersing it with videos of Hitler, Mao, North Korean and other socialist and facist kid propoganda. I don't think I saw even one sympathetic response. The original which I spotted has been made private, so nobody can see the original post, the only versions you can see are the anti-Obama versions, some unchanged from the original.

Looks like unlike the MSM, conservatism is alive and well in the blogosphere and YouTube-sphere. Similarly, nearly every "Obama mortgage crisis" video is anti-Democrat, some like "burning down the house" have logged 1-2 million hits.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008KathySawada video... Read Lori Kalner again after this one...UPDATE @ 7:27PM Oct 2, 2008... she has once again made HER video 'Private'... Ok, so now Kathysawada seems to have it back on, OR IMAO has been given access. (Read Lori Kalner letter again after you read this one... for clarity).Kathy Sawada had made it private, removed most of the comments (the majority speaking of very similar feelings as Lori Kalner expressed), which I had copied because I had a FEELING that they were going to disappear. As I watched her youtube site, MANY of those were reported as SPAM, though they were not. There were PAGES of comments from Sept 30, suddenly down to 74, and then, in the time it took to go from one view to another view (read all comments), it dropped to 54. Yes, Kathysawada was online. Those 20 missing were at that time, still there, marked as spam, and I read them, as well. They were not spam, they WERE mostly critical of the video.So, the link through IMAO is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW9b0xr06qA&eurl=http://www.imao.us/There are also three videos in response at this writing...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMnk29qgSHI&watch_responseThis one has the sound of glass breaking, and it reminds me of Krystalnacht...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdm6AX8VtLQ&watch_responseThis one is the Three Stooges (you can skip it if you like)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58HAEmfZdhg&watch_responseThis one uses the infamous song using Obama's words "Yes, We Can", etc, but intersperses comments/photos...OH... one more thing. THIS is her description of the 'event'....Want to Subscribe?Sign in to YouTube now!Sign in with your Google Account!Sing for Change chronicles a recent Sunday afternoon... Sing for Change chronicles a recent Sunday afternoon, when 22 children, ages 5-12, gathered to sing original songs in the belief that their singing would lift up our communities for the coming election. Light, hope, courage and love shine through these nonvoting children who believe that their very best contribution to the Obama campaign is to sing.Sing for Change was a confluence of hard work, good will, and shared vision. Inspired by ideas raised at a grassroots Obama fundraiser, a music teacher, Kathy Sawada, and the children composed and rehearsed the songs in less than two weeks. Several musicians heard of the effort and volunteered to accompany the children. Parents and older siblings designed and provided the T-Shirts and the banner. There's a first for everything, but rarely do so many firsts come together at once: for the children and their parents, this is their first performance, first video, first banner, and first involvement with grassroots work on a presidential campaign.As Sunday approached, a neighbor volunteered a home. Production wizards got wind of the project and offered their help in recording it.What we accomplished in a few hours on a Sunday afternoon embodies the nature of the Obama campaign: its grassroots inspiration, its inclusiveness, its community building. People pitched in quickly for a cause that resonated with them. There were not many conditions: "Think this is a good idea? Want to help? Great. Sunday at 12:00." At the heart of the project were 22 children and their music. The willingness of all involved to come together for them was a testament to our hope, unity, courage, joy and belief in the future represented by these children.We are offering the video to everyone, the Obama campaign and all media with high hopes that we can all join together to Sing for Change.Technical info: Running time = 3 minutes; Standard Definition and HD Broadcast qualityWE'RE GONNA CHANGE THE WORLDWe're gonna spread happinessWe're gonna spread freedomObama's gonna change itObama's gonna lead 'emWe're gonna change itAnd rearrange itWe're gonna change the world.SING FOR CHANGEMusic and lyrics by Kathy SawadaNow's the moment, lift each voice to singSing with all your heart!For our children, for our families,Nations all joined as one.Sing for joy and sing abundant peace,Courage, justice, hope!Sing together, hold each precious hand,Lifting each other up;Sing for vision, sing for unity,Lifting our hearts to Sing!YES WE CANMusic and lyrics by Kathy SawadaYes we canLift each other upIn peace, in love, in hopeChange! Change!sing...voteposted by WICatholic @ 10/01/2008 03:21:00 PM